Wexford Half Marathon & 10km April 21st

SliM Dedalus

I have registered for the 1/2 but intend on running the 10k due to a stop/ start training regime. Do I need to let anyone know on the morning of the race?

eoin ryan

Timing will pick it up based on your starting time crossing the mat.
No problem

NoGutsNoGlory

SliM Dedalus wrote: »

I have registered for the 1/2 but intend on running the 10k due to a stop/ start training regime. Do I need to let anyone know on the morning of the race?

send Eoin Ryan a private message - he organizes the race.

ncmc

Looks like the weather gods aren't going to smile on us on Sunday

http://www.accuweather.com/en/ie/wexford/211489/daily-weather-forecast/211489?day=3

Since I have been basically a soggy, running mess for the last two months, I actually reckon this could be a strategic advantage to me :P

druss

ncmc wrote: »

Looks like the weather gods aren't going to smile on us on Sunday

http://www.accuweather.com/en/ie/wexford/211489/daily-weather-forecast/211489?day=3

Since I have been basically a soggy, running mess for the last two months, I actually reckon this could be a strategic advantage to me :P

Exactly! I am far more worried about it a) being sunny or b) continuing to be windy.

A bit of drizzle and a mere 34 km/h? The Rotterdam lads would have dreamed of such a day!

I think if there is no gale you need to revise your target down to sub-1:30.

Beef

I prob wont be online later so best of luck to everyone tomorrow!

Dilbert75

Hopefully will be down to cheer ye on tomorrow and maybe take a few photos. Will probably wear my Boards AC top so please say hi if you see me. If we don't speak beforehand good luck and enjoy the run.

belcarra

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Hopefully will be down to cheer ye on tomorrow and maybe take a few photos. Will probably wear my Boards AC top so please say hi if you see me. If we don't speak beforehand good luck and enjoy the run.

Come say hi to the pacers!
I'm doing 1:45 and jcsmum is doing 2:00. Probably a few more from here also (but I haven't seen any other names!).

Carlow2011

belcarra wrote: »

Come say hi to the pacers!

Hi pacer!!

pointer28

Registered there this afternoon. Good buzz around the town.

Hoping to go sub 1:45 all going well. Best of luck to everyone.

vitani

Best of luck, everyone! Looking forward to reading the race reports.

ncmc

I am beginning to totally brick it now! Been ages since I've been so nervous before a race. Anyway best of luck everybody, hope everyone has a great race.

Ososlo

ncmc wrote: »

I am beginning to totally brick it now! Been ages since I've been so nervous before a race. Anyway best of luck everybody, hope everyone has a great race.

I Know what you mean!!!! totally bricking it too!!! best of luck all!

Steroo

I will be in my boards shirt number 1111 so say hello! And good luck to all

Beef

Sunny south east my ass! I'm soaked already and I was only registering! :-)

ncmc

This weather is a total balls. I was planning a couple of miles warm up, but I don't want to get soaked and then be standing at the start line getting cold. So I've wussed out and am sitting in the car. Might adopt a 'straight in, no kissing' approach

Steroo

Still plenty of time for the sun to come out!

ncmc

Accuweather has 17 mins to be correct in it's forecast or else feel my wrath! Supposed to clear up between 9 and 10 and stay dry til 1. Come on sun, I still believe in you!

Duzzie

Just back home from today's run. Thankfully the sun was out for the bulk of the race. I woosed out of doing the half and opted to do the 10km and ended up knocking just over 1 1/2 minutes off my PB so i'm happy with my days efforts. It was an enjoyable run but i did struggle a bit in the last 3, as I think I pushed a bit too hard on the hill at 4ks.

Overall i thought it was well organised and was a decent route, although I wasnt so keen on the little loop into the idustrial estate that the 10k route took. Thanks to all involved in the planning and running of the event

Dilbert75

So the weather played ball just in time! Looked a bit hairy for a while though. Some great running today - well enough organised, though if there is any criticism of the first water station I think it will be justified - we were spectating there and a lot of runners seemed to have difficulty there.

Mitch Connor

Was dreading it driving down this morning - the rain was horrible! Delighted that it cleared up - it was even a bit too hot towards the end of it.

Only did the 10k myself - second 10k having done the Great Ireland Run last week as my first.

Did 54.09 last week so was hoping to go sub 53 this week. Did it in 51.51 so was delighted crossing the line. Next goal has to be sub 50 I suppose!

Anyone know when the chiped race times will be published - or where they will be published?

tang1

Red Tag Timing did the timing, no results online yet.

ncmc

I have to say I wouldn't rate the race particularly highly, for the money, I would have expected more. There was no goody bag, no snack or drink for after which I'd be used to getting in a race pack. There was only water and bananas at the finish, the food afterwards was poor. I didn't have an issue with the water stations, but I believe it was chaos for the earlier runners. I wasn't madly keen on the route, felt like a lot of backtracking and tight corners in the castle grounds. However my biggest gripe was the way it was billed as being such a flat, fast course. It was anything but flat, there were a lot of hills, the weren't particularly steep, but there was a lot of long, slow drags. I would rate it as one of the tougher courses I have done. I probably wouldn't have noticed so much if I'd been prepared, but I'd been expecting a pancake flat course.

That said, it was a great day, the stewards were excellent and Wexford is a lovely town. It was my first visit and will definitely be back to explore the area.

Bit of a disappointment for me running wise, 1:43 when I was hoping for 1:40. The hills and the heat took it out if me!

Dilbert75

Some damn fine cheerleaders too! :P

Good to meet you again NCMC and Mr NCMC & Libby too.

ncmc

Of course! How could I forget the cheer leaders, you guys can really pull of the pep skirts! Although I'm still a bit miffed about the lack of fig rolls I was promised! Being on crutches is no excuse upthe19th!

SliM Dedalus

Second year doing this course and enjoyed it overall. Had to opt for the 10k as my training was stop/ start and the 1/2 would have been a struggle. It's been said already but the route for the 10k was fairly uninspring - the industrial estate a particular low.

Would come back again to tackle the longer course. Next up is the 1/2 in Enniscorthy.

Fiona44

I really enjoyed this race. I thought the organisation was excellent and the route was nice and scenic.

We arrived about 40 mins before it started and got parking right beside the finish line. The whole start was very hassle free with no queues for the portaloos & bag drop.

There is a long steep hill from about mile 2 - 3.5 but it happens early enough on in the race for it not to cause any major problems. The rest of the course is gently undulating with some nice long downhills. Most of the course was nice and scenic but I found the last few kms out on the main road very tough!
Marshalling was good and the support was great if a bit sparse in places. Thanks to the people giving out jellies along the route!

I agree with the comment about the first water station. There was actually only one adult at it when we passed and she wasn't handing out the water quick enough....my sisters race number got torn off in the panic of trying to grab a bottle! The other water stations were fine though.

I enjoyed the final downhill towards the finish (despite the cramping pain in my legs!) and I was delighted to get a PB.
There was water, bananas and soup & a roll at the finish. Which, while not quite a goody bag packed with jellies, was perfectly fine.

I do think the finish area could have done with having some sort of entertainment like a band or a farmers market. There is a nice square at the finish and it would have been nice to have had an excuse to hang around and enjoy the sun!

Overall I would rate this race highly and I plan on coming back next year. The route and the organisation were really great and it was a really enjoyable,hassle free experience and good value for money!

Duzzie

Results are up here

http://www.redtagtiming.com/

Aquals

This was my first time doing this race and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Everything about it was so hassle free!

We got parking about 50 metres from the finish line and, although it was raining when we arrived, the rain had cleared by the time the race started. And it only took us 5 minutes to get from where we had parked at the finish area to the start line.

There were also no queues at all for the portaloos, which is almost unprecedented for a race of this size!!

I really enjoyed the route. It certainly wasn't flat, but the uphill which lasted for about 2.5 miles came early enough in the race that it didn't cause too much of an upset. The rest of the route was undulating, with plenty of lovely long downhills to provide some respite for my tiring legs! I also loved running in Johnstown castle - it was a lovely, quiet haven in the middle of the race!

The atmosphere at the finish was great, but we would have loved an excuse to hang around for a bit longer afterwards as our legs were very tired to be driving. As someone already said, the green at the finish is just crying out for a band or a market or something to provide some entertainment at the end if the race.

We loved the soup and roll though! To get a tshirt, medal, soup, a roll, banana, bottle of water and a well organised race proved to be good value for money!

My only complaint is to do with the first water station that other people have mentioned. A woman and a young boy were handing out bottles very slowly, one bottle at a time. They took so long to pick up the next bottle off the table that people had to come to an almost complete stop. I collided with a runner beside me and, in the melee, my number got ripped off, which was a bit stressful! In fact, the race numbers could probably have been made out of stronger material. At this stage my number was wet from the rain and it the pins holding it on tore through it very easily!

All in all though, a great event! I will certainly be back with a few more friends next year!!

thewolf_ie

I really enjoyed today. I acctually was glad of the hill as I was expecting a flatter course. I didn't use gels etc this time so I wrote the day off as a training session. I had planned 1:30 but finished in 1:37 which is still a PB. Good considering it was only my third Half Marathon. I have a soft spot for the area and great memories so this is a great addition. Looking forward to 2014!

darraghwhite

A quick message for the 1hr 30min pacers. I was in no shape to thank them at the finish line but they stopped and screamed at me to sprint and I would never have made it without them. Thanks a mil guys, took five mins off my PB and am absolutely made up. Get in there!!!!

csmi

Far from a flat course as advertised! Great day, plenty of water and I had the best pacers ever Karen and eamonn (I think). They were so encouraging and got us all across the line in sub 2:-). They made sure when the going was tough that we stuck with it so lots of happy sub 2 pacees:-)

guinang

I thought this was well organised from the go. I had some trouble finding registration but plenty of people about so no issue. Hotel was handy for using the toilets since the portaloos were at the finishing line though if it was my hotel I'm not so sure I'd allow it.

Water stations were great apart from the first station. I got my own because there was no one handing them out. But there was plenty of them. I think there were 4 stations on route which is excellent. Marshalls were great. Great people on the roads offering lots of encouragement. I loved the run around the castle grounds apart from the gravel track which is pretty dodgy especially on the inside line where there was subsidance.

This is not a flat course. There are some serious hills in though not a patch on the Wicklow course, but there were some climbs. And the downs didn't seem to match the ups. When I looked at the elevation map on the website it looked to be downhill from mile 4 on but this is not the case at all.

Would I do it again next year? Yeah, I probably would. I enjoyed the race

belcarra

Lots of people seem to be surprised about the amount of climbing but we arrived back at close to the same point so there was pretty much the same amount of up and down (We were left a little bit short changed given the Faythe is a little uphill from the startline).
The drag to Johnstown Castle was 'noteworthy' but after that the hills weren't really anything too bad.
I would agree though that if I was looking for a PB this would not be the course I'd opt for!
I enjoyed the 1:45 pacing and ran into a few boardsies (Aimman, jcsmum, Blockic, upthe19th, StephenRooney, Dilbert) so a good day out all round!

guinang

I agree on the elevation being nearly the same at start and finish - the difference isn't worth commenting on. It just didn't feel like we got the same back on the downhills. Don't ask me why that was but that's how it felt to me. I wanted an IOU 1 long downhill as part of the goodie bag

I enjoyed the course and I managed a PB, but I think the elevation map on the wexford half & 10k website is a bit misleading. I thought there was little or no hills after 7k.

belcarra

guinang wrote: »

I enjoyed the course and I managed a PB, but I think the elevation map on the wexford half & 10k website is a bit misleading. I thought there was little or no hills after 7k.

There was definitely a couple of downhills which lasted about 500m after Johnstown Castle. I know this because our pace was shooting up towards 4:40/km and we really needed to ease back.
I wasn't too impressed though with the traffic myself. When about to turn off road into the castle three vehicles - two with trailers - came against us and didn't really slow down. There was quite a bunch (about 30 people) with us at this stage so it would have been very easy for any of those vehicles to clip one of us. I know this is not the organiser's fault but wonder if something could be done for future all the same?
Then also, on the way in along the main road (with about 6km remaining) we had to share the road with fast moving traffic again. I personally never like running on the side of open, busy roads but it's even worse when there's a crowd of people. Would have preferred more lane closures from Gardai along this stretch, but perhaps I'm just nitpicking now!!

Ososlo

where the feck were the pacers' balloons???

JohnnyCrash

darraghwhite wrote: »

A quick message for the 1hr 30min pacers. I was in no shape to thank them at the finish line but they stopped and screamed at me to sprint and I would never have made it without them. Thanks a mil guys, took five mins off my PB and am absolutely made up. Get in there!!!!

That was Pat and Nicky.I know the 2 lads,ill pass it on for you.

belcarra

Ososlo wrote: »

where the feck were the pacers' balloons???

We were wearing bright yellow 'Time Keeper' bibs and would have been at the required starting points (marked by the signs on the lamposts). There were a couple of balloons with the 1:30 guys also I think but there was no time-specific markings on them.
What time were you targeting Ososlo? How did it go for you?

webpal

Have to say I didn't mind the hills, my km time is fairly consistent. I would think waterford is fairly flat and I also ran charleville last year which was advertised as Ireland's flattest I think, but I still was 4 mins faster in wexford. Disappointed to be about 30 seconds slower than last year though, though I'd break the 1.40.

Ososlo

belcarra wrote: »

We were wearing bright yellow 'Time Keeper' bibs and would have been at the required starting points (marked by the signs on the lamposts). There were a couple of balloons with the 1:30 guys also I think but there was no time-specific markings on them.
What time were you targeting Ososlo? How did it go for you?

i was told there would be balloons.couldn't find 2 hour pacers. not a good day for me. was on target to mile 10 but some personal issues to deal with. 5 min pb but not what i wanted so really gutted but i guess it's all going in the right direction..

Ri na hEireann

I couldn't find the 2 hour pacers either but probably just as well. First time doing a half having previously only ran a few annual charity 10 milers and came in at 1.53 so happy enough. Not sure if there's enough in the legs to take on a full in June though yet so might have to wait 'til Dublin.

pointer28

I really enjoyed this race but have a few comments also.

The route was a far cry from pan flat, but I liked it apart from the last few km's on the main road which were dull. The elevation profile on the race site doesn't match the profile on my garmin. Like I said I enjoyed it but if I was a first timer I would have been annoyed.

The route through Johnstown Castle was lovely apart from the loose gravel which thankfully only lasted a few hundred metres, a few pointless parts and tight turnarounds but I suppose they were necessary to make the distance.

The medal was the worst I've ever seen, no clue as to what race it came from and no souvenir value at all. More suited to a primary school sports day. I would rather have done without it and taken a fiver off the entry fee. Very disappointing and bordering on insulting.

The weather was nearly perfect other than a bit miserable waiting for the start. If they could have organised a slight passing shower at the 15k mark and a tailwind on the way home it would have been perfect.

Overall, a nice race and one I'd like to do again but some improvements needed.

ncmc

pointer28 wrote: »

I really enjoyed this race but have a few comments also.

The route was a far cry from pan flat, but I liked it apart from the last few km's on the main road which were dull. The elevation profile on the race site doesn't match the profile on my garmin. Like I said I enjoyed it but if I was a first timer I would have been annoyed.

The route through Johnstown Castle was lovely apart from the loose gravel which thankfully only lasted a few hundred metres, a few pointless parts and tight turnarounds but I suppose they were necessary to make the distance.

The medal was the worst I've ever seen, no clue as to what race it came from and no souvenir value at all. More suited to a primary school sports day. I would rather have done without it and taken a fiver off the entry fee. Very disappointing and bordering on insulting.

The weather was nearly perfect other than a bit miserable waiting for the start. If they could have organised a slight passing shower at the 15k mark and a tailwind on the way home it would have been perfect.

Overall, a nice race and one I'd like to do again but some improvements needed.

Meant to mention the medal in my post, it was by far the worst i've come across, went straight in the bin when I went home! Medals don't bother me too much, but for a first timer for whom this was the goal race, it would have been disappointing. Again, it was just little things like this that didn't live up to the price tag on the race.

pointer28

Yeah that was my thinking too.

While I'm not a first timer, I'm certainly not competitive and enjoy running different routes and having a nice memento to remember it by.

Like you said, I have nothing to say I ever did this race apart from the T-shirt which won't last forever.

Aimman

csmi wrote: »

Far from a flat course as advertised! Great day, plenty of water and I had the best pacers ever Karen and eamonn (I think). They were so encouraging and got us all across the line in sub 2:-). They made sure when the going was tough that we stuck with it so lots of happy sub 2 pacees:-)

You're very welcome. Sorry we didn't get the sing song started. Delighted you hit the sub 2 hour

Ososlo wrote: »

i was told there would be balloons.couldn't find 2 hour pacers. not a good day for me. was on target to mile 10 but some personal issues to deal with. 5 min pb but not what i wanted so really gutted but i guess it's all going in the right direction..

Sorry you didn't get to see us at the start. There should have been balloons with times on them, but there were a couple of blank balloons available and a selection of 'Time Keeper' bibs, so we took the bibs because when the balloons burst, it's harder to keep an eye on us during the race. We were at the alotted area just before the race.

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

Yesterday was my first time running slogging a half marathon distance.
I was quite comfortable up until the 14km mark, knocking out pretty consistent 5:10 -> 5:20 kms. Which on reflection was a bit too fast given the level of training I had managed.
After 14 the km times dropped to 5:45. At around 16km I felt absolutely terrible, I think it must have been hunger. I somehow managed to keep going but my pace continued to flag.

Massive thanks to the pacemaker, a blonde girl, who yelled at me enough to get me to lift my legs and get across the line just as the clock turned 2:00:00!
Chip time 1:59:37 - Onward and upward.

I found the event to be pretty well organised overall but definitely a bit on the expensive side.

belcarra

Joey Joe-Joe Jr wrote: »

Massive thanks to the pacemaker, a blonde girl, who yelled at me enough to get me to lift my legs and get across the line just as the clock turned 2:00:00!

That definitely sounds like jcsmum!:D

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

belcarra wrote: »

That definitely sounds like jcsmum!:D

I've made it sound much worse than it was, she was probably whispering gentle words of encouragement but I was in a very delicate state at that point!!

Beef

I finally got the 1:50 monkey off my back and came in at 1:48 and a bit so was delighted. Found it a tough course especially the first 4 or 5 miles. The goody back I have to say was shocking for the money paid for the race. Club events always seem so much better value for money.